Ted Cruz discovers, rejects Canadian citizenship

One day after Sen. Ted Cruz released his birth certificate to the media, showing that he was born in Canada, he said he would renounce his Canadian citizenship.

The Texas Republican shared his birth certificate Sunday with The Dallas Morning News. It shows his place of birth as Calgary, Alberta, to an American mother, a fact which conferred upon him American citizenship.

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But Canadian lawyers told the Morning News that Cruz’s birth in Canada also instantly conferred upon him Canadian citizenship, though a spokeswoman for Cruz said he was not aware of having dual citizenship.

“Sen. Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen,” Catherine Frazier told the Morning News. “To our knowledge, he never had Canadian citizenship, so there is nothing to renounce.”

On Monday, Cruz said he would renounce his Canadian citizenship. “I got my U.S. passport in high school,” he said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.

“Because I was a U.S. citizen at birth, because I left Calgary when I was 4 and have lived my entire life since then in the U.S., and because I have never taken affirmative steps to claim Canadian citizenship, I assumed that was the end of the matter,” he added. “Now The Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship. Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I’m an American by birth and as a U.S. Senator, I believe I should be only an American.”

Cruz is a tea party favorite and buzzed-about candidate for president in 2016, and he has been vocally calling on Republicans to shut down the government in an effort to defund Obamacare. He has faced scrutiny in recent weeks over his Canadian birth, though many experts have concluded Cruz qualifies as a natural-born citizen to run for president.

After President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, faced continual attacks from so-called birthers, who claim the president was not born in the U.S., he released his own long-form birth certificate in 2011.

On Monday, Cruz said he was amused by the hubbub over his birth.

“A reporter asked for a copy of my birth certificate so we said, ‘Sure,’ and gave it to him,” Cruz said on the “Laura Ingraham Show” Monday morning. “I will admit I find the tizzy in the media a little bit amusing — the fact that the New York Times is this hysterical after my being in office only a few months.”

Cruz said he is a U.S. citizen, as is his mother, and he wouldn’t speculate about what it means for his running for office.

“I’m a citizen by birth. And those are the facts of my birth and I’ll let other people worry about the legal consequences,” Cruz said.